Luxury.

 

The first coach load of tourists disembark and head towards the cathedral. A disinterested tour leader with a stick and a flag leads them on. The enthusiastic culture vultures follow close behind. Teenagers and those who are wondering why in heavens name they ever agreed to a start of day tour are strung out behind. Some wear canary yellow jackets - others, sensibly, don't. All of them stop and stare as two helicopters fly by hugging the coast. Hedge Fund managers come to play a round on the Old Course with their clients.

The ladies outfitters has a new and exceedingly demure fashion display .

The sunny side of the shopping street already busy. All the outside tables and chairs full. Starbucks is clearly THE go to destination for tourists looking for an emergency caffeine infusion after the haul up from Edinburgh. The queue snakes from the counter to the front door. A group of eight are animatedly traying to decide what they want to order. They do this with a passion that sets them apart from the locals. They're talking in what I think is heavily accented Turkish but 'The Font' thinks is Hungarian.  We divert to the little Italian coffee shop by the kilt makers. 

The railings outside the chapel are being repainted. This is what counts as excitement in a small college town when the students are away. The old paint is being thoroughly removed and primer applied to the bare metal. This is 'no short cuts' work of a standard that only major clients like the university receive.

Down towards the golf course we pass the old hotel that's been gutted in readiness for work to start on 6 new 'luxury' apartments. Only the walls are left standing. 'The Font' wonders what constitutes a 'luxury' apartment. When was the last time you saw a property advert that didn't use the word luxury ?

104:https://x.com/Edward__Burke/status/1792598694027461095

Crime :https://www.edwest.co.uk/p/did-mobile-phones-cause-the-crime

A strange thing :https://www.military.com/daily-news/2024/05/19/how-british-military-march-became-distinctive-sound-of-american-graduations.html

The floating gin palace

 

The heather now past its best but the lupins in the courtyard rockery coming into full bloom. They have self seeded so what was a scattering of lupins in 2023 is a veritable jungle of them in 2024. This is the sort of easy gardening I approve of. 

Last night we sat out late with a bottle of Pouilly Fuisse and watched a large 'gin palace' of a cruise liner sail north across the bay. This is the fourth of these enormous things we've seen this year. The boats next stop is Kirkwall where the more adventurous will get off to see the Ring of Brodgar and Maes Howe. I'm guessing a large proportion will stay on board.

The stream of twitchers coming to see the Shrikes has slowed down . After Saturdays flood of visitors Sunday saw at most twenty or so bird watchers wander past. By village standards this is still an avalanche of incomers.

Monday morning in town is quiet. If you wanted to film a Georgian era docudrama this would be the time and place to do it.

A few tourists breakfasting al fresco on the shopping street. The umbrellas are already up. During Covid many of the restaurants were allowed to expand their outside seating areas onto the adjacent parking bays. They are still there. Angus rather likes this continental dining atmosphere but many of the shop keepers decry the loss of parking and the decline in sales.

In the supermarket car park a minibus with French Vauculuse number plates. By the time we've done our shopping  the minibus has been joined by three more together with a fourth that seems to be full of mountain bikes. Seems this is a company that arranges upmarket cycling and walking tours. The guests spent last night in the luxury of the  Old Course Hotel. The tour guides are up at first light buying Marks and Spencers sandwiches and punnets of fresh strawberries for todays ride north to Carnoustie.

Formal graduation wear makes a seasonal showing in the kilt makers by the coffee shop. This is a very busy time of year for them.

The most famous people by region. Some extremely surprising choices  :https://tjukanovt.github.io/notable-people

Climate change :https://iai.tv/articles/we-still-dont-understand-climate-change-auid-2843

You can't always trust what you read :https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/05/15/1092535/a-wave-of-retractions-is-shaking-physics/

Twitchers enflamed

 

It seems the Red Backed Shrikes are rare. In fact they're extremely rare. News of their arrival has spread rapidly on the twitcher grapevine .Saturday sees a steady stream of sensibly dressed visitors traipsing past the courtyard hoping to catch a glimpse of them. I'd reckon there must have been the better part of fifty of these earnest folk passing us during the day. Puppy and her  elder sisters are delighted to see so many new faces. The visitors inform us that a) the Shrike has the most beautiful song of all British birds and b) that it's the smallest of all the raptors being little larger than a sparrow. One lives and learns.

This morning its already 17 degrees when we head off in the car to the town beach. Apart from seven surfers and a lady in a wet suit doing yoga we have the place to ourselves.

After our walk we detour to the cafe in town. As we arrive a lady sits down at an outside table with a pot of tea and a muffin. As she lifts the muffin to her lips a seagull swoops down and carries it off.

The lady stands, shakes her first and lets fly with some choice language. The young woman behind the cafe counter comes out with a replacement muffin. A small but kindly gesture. The seagull looks mightily pleased with himself. He noisily deals with any other muffin loving gulls. It has to be said that the seagull stole the muffin with remarkable dexterity. I have seen the gulls steal peoples fish suppers but this is the first time I've seen one rob a cafe in full daylight.

Earlier in the week we saw a truck with a slogan painted on the side ' Brilliant in circularity management '. What is that supposed to mean ? This morning there's a van parked blocking the pavement by the museum. The company does ' Specialist Enabling Works '. We are left none the wiser. Is growing linguistic incomprehension an age thing ?

Many of the old houses in the medieval heart of town have been turned into Airbnb's.  Departing guests deposit their rubbish at the front doors without ensuring the bin bags are sealed and 'gull proof '. Within minutes the seagulls and crows the do a good job of 'unpacking' the bin bags in search of goodies.

Lots of Italians here this morning. The six am tour of the day from Edinburgh deposits them by the lavatories on the sea front. Their tour guide seems to have found something interesting to say about the nondescript university administration buildings. That must be a first.

Things I didn't know about :https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/medical-critical-thinking-technology/reports-death-dental-cavities-are-greatly-exaggerated

Things I didn't know about #2 :https://gizmodo.com/alkaline-water-useless-ph-balance-acidity-gut-health-1851484113

Vapourised.

 

What is there to write about when the students have gone and the summer visitors haven't yet arrived ?

Out on the coast we meet the owner of the German registered Mercedes we saw earlier in the week. He and his six year old have spent quality time camping out on the beach. They came down with their sleeping bags last night.  His wife and the two and four year old  slept, in comfort, in their house in the village. We watch the father and son walk back slowly along the track towards home. They're deep in conversation. You couldn't get better quality time if you tried.

Down by the rock outcrop the bird watcher with his beanie hat and  zoom lens has seen - and photographed -  a pair of Red Backed Shrikes. If his excitement is anything to go by we can assume these are extremely rare

Behind the Italian coffee shop the old college courtyard is deserted. In the absence of students I reckon the coffee shops takings must be down by 80%. We meet a cigarette smoking caretaker who tells us a stick of bombs was dropped here in a 1944 air raid. One hit a cottage ( but the lady owner was out  ) another hit a corner of the medical school and a third landed in front of the library just to the left of the large oak tree scattering 14,000 books across the garden. The final one hit a house where a young lady was 'entertaining' her boyfriend who was on leave from the Army. The caretaker tells us with relish than  that ' the twa wur vapourised'. The things you learn.

The restaurant that's very popular with students is having a makeover. The builders are working on a Saturday which must indicate that the owners are keen to get it ready for the tourist influx.

The beach deserted bar the local dog walkers and a smattering of joggers.

A solitary dog chases crows across the grass by the municipal flower beds. The dog is very happy and feigns clinical deafness when called. Eventually his owner wanders back and puts on his lead. They trot off. Every so often the dog glances over his shoulder and gives the crows a ' Just you wait ' look. 

No breeze to trouble the dandelion seeds this morning.

So starts an exceedingly quiet - and hot - day in a small coastal town  enjoying summer before the tourists and summer schoolers arrive.

The Nile has moved :https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-01449-y

The Sun :https://www.universetoday.com/167026/the-sun-hurls-its-most-powerful-flare-in-a-decades/

The leaflet

Election season - or at least the run up to it. A tall thin man appears in the garden as we're settling down to enjoy an evening glass of Sancerre Rose. He's delivering leaflets for a political party. ' This is for you ' he says thrusting a leaflet into my hand and then quickly scurrying away. As he closes the gate he shouts out ' I couldn't find the letter box'.  The election leaflet informs us that the candidate has worked in a pharmacy for 30 years ( which is subtly different from being a pharmacist  ), wants to 'passionately'  improve the lives of local voters and thinks the pot holes on the road to the station are a 'disgrace'.

The good weather is bringing out the tourists. This morning the coffee shop is full of a group of visiting golfers getting ready to drive north to take part in a  tournament :https://thefifearms.com/events/kilted-open-2024/  . I'd never heard of the tournament but a lady from Durham (NC) who wanders over to introduce herself  tell us ' it's real popular with the Scotch folk'. I stand corrected. The golfers finally head off in three large and identical rental Volvos.  Despite having GPS the menfolk ( who are that age where courage is tempered by an abundance of prudence )  insist on coordinating their route. A map is unfurled on the leading cars bonnet and is carefully studied by the drivers. Suggestions on which route to take are made. Concerns about the rush hour are raised. Bladder duration is a key determinant of where and when they will stop. 90 minutes between halts is considered optimal.  The womenfolk do their level best to hide their impatience with these deliberations but fail miserably. This evening the group will be dining here :https://fishshopballater.co.uk/ which they say is a 'delight'.

We're getting pretty close to the season of endless days. A few hardy tourists are already sitting on the benches overlooking the beach. Hotel rooms never seem to have curtains that block out the light. For most of the year that's not a problem but is annoying for anyone trying to get an uninterrupted seven or eight hours sleep  when the sun is up at four.

A house on Scotlands most expensive street  is being renovated. Edwardian doors and windows have been stripped out and are ready to go into the skip.

Further down the street the makeover of the old hotel continues. All the floors have been taken down so that only the external walls are left. Six 'luxury' flats are going to be built here. The small private hotel next door can't be very happy with the sound of the construction work.

At the house in town a letter from the youngsters organizing the graduation Ball. A heads up that we should be far far away on June 15th if we wish to retain our sanity.

Back here in the country more signs of summer. 

The red campion in full bloom. It only grows in the sheltered ground beneath the stone walls. This year its not so much growing as thriving. Give it a month and the Rosebay Willowherb and the Queen Annes Lace will start to bloom and provide colour into the early northern autumn.

This mornings car radio music :https://youtu.be/D8YdLl9Aglo

Decaf coffee questions - again :https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/medical-general-science/methylene-chloride-can-strip-paint-can-also-strip-years-your-life

Weedkiller  :https://geneticliteracyproject.org/2024/05/15/with-glyphosate-under-fire-scientists-look-for-alternatives-to-the-most-effective-and-safest-weedkiller-in-the-world-its-not-going-well/

The real England. Discovered by a Manhattanite. Good luck getting a reservation  :https://thecompassesinn.com/gallery/

Verdigris.

We wake to find a Mercedes with German registration plates parked in the field outside the house. Three small children accompanied by their parents can be seen  heading down the track to the shore. Shrieks tell us when they've made it into the water. How in heavens name did they manage to find this secluded spot ? 'The Font' points out that this is the time of year when academics with young families 'swap' houses with foreign colleagues. For a  couple of months the village becomes decidedly cosmopolitan with an influx of  French and German home swapping  'incomers' - all of whom speak perfect English. The visiting incomers also barbecue ( as and when the weather allows ) and park their cars 'creatively' around the village green. 

It's going to be a beautiful day. Or, it will be once the sea mist burns off and the temperature rises.

In town the tour groups are out in force. The visitors leave Edinburgh at six and head up the motorway to be here in time for a 'complimentary' continental breakfast in one of the hotels on the sea front. Having detoured via the washrooms by the golf course they are now making their way, determinedly, to the cathedral ruins. This morning Spanish visitors are in the majority. In the 1100's the huge cathedral, standing on a sheer rock outcrop surrounded by sea, must have been one of Europes most magical buildings. It was said to have had a copper roof that sailors could see glowing from far out at sea. This seems to me improbable. After six months of Scottish weather verdigris would have turned any copper roof  green. Having seen the cathedral and the castle the Spanish tourists will board their coach and head off North to the Highlands.

On our way home we startle a crow trying to prise open a discarded yogurt carton. The crow , in turn, startles us by executing  a vertical take off manoeuvre. 

So starts a quiet Thursday morning in a small town waiting for the summer influx of golfers to move into high gear. There is a lot of sprucing up activity around the lecture halls which suggests that the first of the summer schools is about to begin.

Sunny morning music :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9ilV7HHU0U

The benefits of civilisation :https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2020/05/flesh-eating-worms-disease-containment-america-panama/611026/

Murk.

 

We go for dinner to the modern restaurant with the glorious views across the beach. The golfers who flew into the local airbase on their private 737 are also there. They're clustered around the bar in a defensive huddle. A gentleman named Charlie is loudly and enthusiastically reliving the eagle he got on the 14th. This , it would seem, is something he will be bragging about for the rest of his life. Charlie and his colleagues are still at the bar as we finish dinner and leave. Their bar tab is likely to be bigger than the GDP of some small African countries. They seem to be trying every 'Scotch' on the shelves. There will be a few sore heads later on.

A sea mist this morning. The weather forecaster informs us that the Scottish east coast will see ' a haar followed by murk'.   Angus wonders how many English folk will know what a 'haar' is. The 'murk' part they will probably get.

We stop off for a coffee at the little Italian cafe. The chimney stacks on the old buildings on the other side of the road are a small miracle of architectural engineering. The place must have  had a foul reek to it in the days when every one of them was belching out smoke and coal dust.

The university staff are now joining the students and heading off for the summer. The older parts of  town , away from the golf courses, have a distinctly empty feel to them. Parking is once again easy. If you want to shoot a zombie movie with eerily deserted streets then St.Andrews in mid-May is the place to do it.

Another sign of avian flu on the beach.

Todays 'must view' winner : Porcupine eating an apple :https://twitter.com/shouldhaveanima/status/1790261987534066059

Sweetgreen a company that makes $20 salads - presumably sold in supermarkets :https://sherwood.news/business/the-economics-of-a-usd15-sweetgreen-salad/

Quietly judging.

It's bright and sunny at five but by six a chilly sea mist is rolling in. The golfers on the Old Course have come prepared. Hats and fleeces are produced. They quickly get wrapped up against the cold.

A serious bunch of New Yorkers this morning. Each player has his own caddie. Strategies are discussed and suggestions made on which clubs to use. Some of the players go through pre-match calisthenic routines. The caddies quietly judge their clients. One of the caddies ( the man married to the lady who walks Archie the arthritic labrador ) wanders over to tell us that Corn Buntings have arrived in the wild flower meadow on the estuary. Rather than fly into Edinburgh - an hours drive south - this mornings golfers have brought their private jet into the local RAF base. I'm guessing that requires having some really , really good contacts in the British government.

Poppies growing on the dunes.

Seems that avian flu hasn't finished with us yet. Not something we wanted to see as peak migration season starts.

Back in the village the sheep have been rounded up. A dozen had made it onto the 5 star hotels golf course. Their taste of freedom was short lived.

Now the sheep are back in their field , happily chewing cauliflower leaves and scrambling for seaweed on the rocks by the shore. They're a Hebridean breed . Some have started to moult in what passes for warmth in these northerly climes.

Ultra-processed foods :https://www.acsh.org/news/2024/05/10/unraveling-myth-ultra-processed-foods-17839

I've done my best to ignore this but it's a technology that's coming very quickly :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQacCB9tDaw

Peace and quiet.

 

Monday morning. The Manhattanites are on the phone early to ask why Putin has replaced his defence and  security ministers. 'Because he can' is the quick answer. By the time we've finished talking the clematis at the courtyard gate already abuzz with bees.

Two 'senior' gentlemen golfers from Florida trudge off towards the first tee on the Old Course. We know they're from Florida because they tell us so. As they head off their golf bags and clubs clink and clunk like two old cart horses.  With the students gone there are a couple of hours in the morning and the evening when the town has a wonderful pre-day tripper calm.

Another ladies fashion store rearranges their window display in readiness for the arrival of mothers for the graduation season. 'Bright' and 'warm' never seem to go out of fashion in this little northerly town. For graduation week hotel rates become  stratospheric. Those who haven't already booked their rooms will find that the large 5 star hotel at the edge of the village will charge them £1020 a night.

The shop also has tartan wear for lowland fathers and purists  who consider wearing a kilt south of Perth to be pas correcte. This is the first time I've ever seen tartan trews for sale outside Edinburgh.

An old painted sign above two shops has us stopping in our tracks to make out what it says .

'Henderson the baker of good rolls'  . The sign must be at least 100 years old. How long before it's weathered out of existence ?

What interesting writing :https://www.edwest.co.uk/p/the-mystery-and-magic-of-petra

Gritty reality

 

The sky blue, the sea clear and calm. You could almost imagine you were in the Caribbean were it not for the 'fresh' northerly breeze. 

On our morning walk we meet the farmers wife who tells us she has seen reed buntings on the potato barns gutters. Soon after we catch up with the man with the black labrador who has been told - unofficially - that the Outlander film crew have not been given permission to film in the village. This will be a relief to all and sundry. Finally, we bump into the retired judge. He wonders what has come over the writers of The Archers. The plot line of this every day tale of country folk usually deals with donkeys with sore paws but has recently moved sharply into the 21st century with a car accident , drunken driving allegations and all sorts of rural 'shenanigans'. The judges daily radio listening has strayed into the realm of  gritty reality and he is not happy. He's going to write to the BBC. As he heads off he wonders whether Switzerland should have won Eurovision. His money had been on Croatia.

Heading along the lane into town we pass thirty or so hunting dogs out for a walk. A man in a brown coat on a bicycle leads the pack while a 'lad' in a hoodie follows on behind. He's also on a bicycle. They're heading along the lane at a fair lick and clearly enjoying themselves.  I thought  that hunting was no longer allowed so the sight of a hunting pack comes as a surprise. The man in the brown coat leads the dogs into a field so that we can drive past. I manage to get a quick snap through the car window. We smile and wave.

A crowd of weekenders already queueing up outside the ice cream shop. The Scots go completely doolally when the temperatures nudge towards double figures. What better way to start the day than a breakfast double scoop ? 

A few brave souls have made it into the cathedral grounds. I'd hoped that the remedial work might have been completed so that the safety fences could be removed. If anything there seem to be more fences than ever this year. I guess this means that the risk of being hit by a falling piece of medieval masonry remains a real and present danger. None of this seems to bother a group of intrepid Japanese.

The small beach by the castle busy with bathers. There must be at least a hundred of them. This would appear to be the entire student population who are back to take 'resits'. 

This mornings car radio music :https://youtu.be/iU2HIKsfwEQ?t=4

A second night of this :https://www.space.com/spectacular-northern-lights-rare-solar-flares-may-2024

Maple syrup bottles :https://www.mentalfloss.com/posts/maple-syrup-bottle-skeuomorph